This weekend, I went to a mini-conference that had a great cast of speakers, all speaking about epublishing. Jennifer Skully spoke about her career and what e-books have done to build her writing resume. It was an inspiring speech and those of you who are looking for a way to break up and out through epublishing should take a look at Jennifer’s career (she also writes spicy romance as Jasmine Haynes).
But I think the most interesting information came out of a talk given by Malle Vallik, VP of new business for Harlequin. Here's a little bit of what she said:
* Next month, HQ is starting an e-book program consisting of 40 titles (reprints and a few new releases). These books will be available on the e-Harlequin site and from ereader.com
* Audible.com is partnering with HQ to record HQ's books, which will be available for download to your MP3 and i-pod. Brenda Novak will be one of the first authors recorded.
* E-harlequin has serialized romance stories (if you haven't read them) to generate traffic on the site and let readers try an author.
* E-harlequin has been trying interactive writing, to let readers vote on plot twists for these stories. Telling stories in the future will, they think, be more interactive.
* Harlequin is trying to come up with ways to use new technology, such as our mobile phones, to increase interaction with the reader. HQ has a mobile phone test with Vocel, where HQ novellas will be sent to people's cell phone in daily chunks of 500 or so words for a small charge.
* HQ has been putting Manga out in Japan now for years (these are graphic novels which are more and more popular here these days). They plan to test two new lines -- Pink for 12 to 16 year olds and Violet for 16 and up.
* HQ and Oxygen are teaming up to put out series books as movies.
I found her talk fascinating. HQ really is looking for new ways to deliver stories to people.
2 comments:
Wow, Leigh. Didnt know you had a journal! Glad I found you. I killed my journal about 6 weeks ago, but just started a new one yesterday. It's lonely if you want to stop by. http://cheyennemccray.blogspot.com/
Interesting about HQ and e-books. I wonder how they'll pay compared to places like EC that pays 37.5% of gross sale price?
As far as what E-books do for a career---e-books launched my career and I'll thought of them and still do that they're the future. Someday we'll be like Star Trek: The Next Generation, and everything will be computerized and that's the way all books will be stored. It's still nice to sit back with a paperback, though. But I truly believe in e-books.
Hugs,
Chey
Are you NEVER going to post a new blog? Come on, man. Even I posted something. :)
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